This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-0021874, filed on Mar. 16, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-voltage integrated circuit device, and more particularly, to a high-voltage integrated circuit device including a high-voltage resistant diode completely electrically isolated from other regions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, technology for manufacturing a high-voltage integrated circuit devices including semiconductor devices operating at high voltages and lower voltage or logic circuits driving the semiconductor devices, has been developing rapidly. One example of such technology is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,507,085.
FIGS. 1 through 4 are schematic plan views of other conventional high-voltage integrated circuit devices with low voltage circuits. Like reference numerals in FIGS. 1 through 4 denote like elements.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional high-voltage integrated circuit device 101 includes a low-voltage circuit region 111, a high-voltage circuit region 121, a junction termination 131, and a high-voltage resistant diode 141a. 
The junction termination 131 electrically isolates the low-voltage circuit region 111 from the high-voltage circuit region 121. The high-voltage resistant diode 141a is formed in the junction termination 131. The high-voltage resistant diode 141a includes an anode 142a and a cathode 143a. The anode 142a is formed of a p+-type impurity region and the cathode 143a is formed of an n+-type impurity region. Therefore, when a forward voltage is applied between the anode 142a and the cathode 143a, holes released from the anode 142a move to the cathode 143a, and electrons released from the cathode 143a move to the anode 142a, thereby causing electric current to flow from the anode 142a to the cathode 143a. 
In this case, even though all of the holes released from the anode 142a should flow into the cathode 143a, some of the holes are drawn into the high-voltage circuit region 121 through the right or left side of the cathode 143a. Since some of the holes released from the anode 142a flow into the high-voltage circuit region 121 as described above, a leakage current flows from the high-voltage resistant diode 141a to the high-voltage circuit region 121, which may cause semiconductor devices (not shown) in the high-voltage circuit region 121 to operate unstably.
FIGS. 2 through 4 illustrate modified structures of the high-voltage resistant diode 141a illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 2 through 4, high-voltage resistant diodes 141b through 141d include anodes 142b through 142d and cathodes 143b through 143d, respectively. The high-voltage resistant diodes 141b through 141d are smaller than the high-voltage resistant diode 141a illustrated in FIG. 1 but still have leakage currents. In other words, not all holes released from the anodes 142b through 142d are injected into the cathodes 143b through 143d, respectively. Some of the holes are injected into high-voltage circuit regions 121, thereby causing leakage currents to flow from the high-voltage resistant diodes 141b through 141d to the high-voltage circuit regions 121, respectively. As a result, semiconductor devices formed in the high-voltage circuit regions 121 operate unstably due to the leakage currents.